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California Medical Board

As the legislature begins its final weeks a critical patient safety measure is awaiting its fate.

Senator Jerry Hill and patient safety advocates have worked for years to ensure patients have the right to know if their doctor is on probation for violations that place patient safety at risk.

Hill’s plan would inform patients if their doctor is on probation for cases involving sexual misconduct, criminal conviction involving their practice, or drug or alcohol abuse that affects their patients.

In a hearing before the California Supreme Court, Justices appeared unconvinced that the state Medical Board should be barred from consulting the state’s prescription drug database in order to discipline drug-dealing and over-prescribing doctors.

At issue is the unusual claim that doctors can assert their patients’ privacy rights in order to insulate themselves from disciplinary procedures which are designed to protect patients from substandard care.

Four years ago, state lawmakers delivered a scathing indictment of the Medical Board of California for failing in its primary mission: patient protection. Physician oversight remains broken four years after that legislative “sunset review” committee threatened to shut down the Medical Board if it did not improve patient protection. Consumer Watchdog testifies at the sunset review hearing today and will call for the Board to be disbanded if it cannot improve.

Would you want to know if your doctor was in addiction treatment and failed a drug test? Shouldn't he have to tell the hospital he works at? What about the state Medical Board responsible for disciplining physicians who place patients at risk?

The Medical Board, whose job it is to keep patients safe from dangerous doctors, should be notified when a doctor with addiction issues fails a drug test, right?

Senators Hill, Block and Jackson extracted that commitment from the California Medical Association and Senator Galgiani yesterday, at a hearing into Galgiani's bill, SB 1177, that would create a drug and alcohol abuse program for doctors at the California Medical Board.